Air war over Pennsylvania budget standoff to hit TV screens

MATT ROURKE, AP

Gov. Tom Wolf's budget proposal, rejected by the Legislature, would have raised spending by $2.6 billion and would have sent $800 million more to public schools, universities and early- childhood education programs.

Gov. Tom Wolf's budget proposal, rejected by the Legislature, would have raised spending by $2.6 billion and would have sent $800 million more to public schools, universities and early- childhood education programs. (MATT ROURKE, AP)

Marc LevyOf The Associated Press

Beware TV air war over PA budget impasse

HARRISBURG — The air war over Gov. Tom Wolf's week-old budget standoff with Republicans who control the Pennsylvania Legislature expanded Wednesday with the launch of a TV ad by a national Democratic group.

The 30-second statewide ad by an affiliate group of the Democratic Governors Association aligns with Wolf's public relations strategy. It takes on Republicans over the budget bill that Wolf vetoed, saying the GOP plan would let the oil and gas industry off the hook, would not adequately fund education and would have deepened the deficit.

"Gov. Wolf is fighting for a middle-class budget that lowers property taxes and makes oil and gas companies pay up to fund our schools," the ad says. "Tell the Legislature to get serious and pass a real budget."

The ad comes a day after Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman, R-Centre, left a meeting with Wolf and told reporters that the effort to revive talks is stuck on Republican opposition to Wolf's request for tax increases on sales and income.

Corman did not rule out other kinds of tax increases, and he said Republicans are open to helping Wolf meet his goals — within reason.

Wolf did not speak to reporters after the meeting.

A spokesman for the DGA said the group is spending more than $500,000 to run the ad for 10 days. The affiliate group that paid for the ad, America Works USA, is organized under a section of the federal tax code that does not require it to disclose its donors.

Wednesday marked Pennsylvania state government's eighth day without an enacted budget, meaning that the Wolf administration has lost some authority to pay vendors. No talks were scheduled between Wolf and Republican leaders.

A spokesman for House Majority Leader Dave Reed, R-Indiana, accused the Wolf administration of running itself like a campaign. Wolf's gubernatorial campaign has continued to regularly send fundraising emails, and the governor has started a new political action committee called Rebuild Pennsylvania and has voiced a radio ad paid for by America Works USA that is critical of Republicans.

"They were clearly colluding with the Democratic Governors Association and their own PAC to basically attack Republican members of the House and Senate," said the House spokesman, Stephen Miskin.

Wolf's proposal for a $31.6 billion budget package raises spending by $2.6 billion, or 9 percent, and is designed to wipe out a long-term deficit and send about $800 million more to public schools, universities and early childhood education programs. To make it balance, Wolf asked for higher taxes on income, sales, Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling, banks and tobacco products.

The $30.2 billion no-new-taxes budget bill that Wolf vetoed had passed the Legislature last week after negotiations between the Wolf administration and Republicans stalled. It passed without a single vote from a Democratic lawmaker.

It would have sent about $200 million more to education programs, while relying on more than $1 billion in stopgaps to balance, including postponing payments for school construction aid, child welfare programs and school employees' Social Security.